653 new COVID cases overnight…we think

Just as Ontario enters a second phase of the COVID pandemic some of the data being released by the Ministry of Health is creating confusion. The official number of new COVID 19 cases released by the Province for yesterday is 653. The previous day  the government reported 732 new cases—an all-time record but later revealed that 73 of those cases were the result of tidying up some of their old data. Yesterday the province adjusted the number of  deaths upward by 76 again due to earlier reporting errors and today added another 41 deaths for the same reason. The actual number of people who died in the last 24 hour period was four. There was a big drop in hospitalizations from 167 to 155. There are 43 people in Intensive Care. The province says the system can handle up to 150 ICU cases before it begins to affect regular hospital operations. There are 23 patients on ventilators. On Friday, the province asked residents to now only come in close contact with those inside their immediate household, effectively putting a pause on social circles. Ontario Premier Doug Ford also laid out a number of new restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 as the province logged two days of record-breaking daily case counts this week. Despite the decrease, the new infections recorded on Saturday represent case numbers unseen since late April, when the province was regularly documenting daily case counts in the 500s and 600s.At that time, the province had just unveiled its three phase plan to restart the economy while much of Ontario remained in a state of lockdown.